What's on your workbench?

[grizzlymc]

If you are going to fall, it is better to fall between stools.

[Shahbahraz]

Good stuff, thanks for the link. Though unless you're a fan of the Tudors, I would be looking further afield in period. The Italian Wars particularly are complex, colourful and characterful.

I used to play a fair bit of DBR, and thought it worked very well for ECW and TYW. I hadn't tried playing earlier armies, and it absolutely was not suited to 'open' competition play, as the later armies such as Williamite, were so far superior to the earlier period ones. Another option, (and caveat that I have read them, read battle reports, but haven't played them), would be FoG:Renaissance?

I have an enormous collection of unassembled Warlord ECW/TYW plastics, but whether those will ever see a paintbrush is dubious, unless there's someone local who desperately needs an opponent.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

At the moment it’s a mash-up of Lion Rampant and Pikeman’s Lament. But I’m open to suggestions.

LT - Having played FoG:R, I can say that I have found them to be that rare thing - a Renaissance-era rule set that actually does work for the whole era (again, ahistorical match-ups are not recommended, but since that's not what's being planned here, you should be all right). They are as good as Gush, but without the accountancy exam that goes with using the latter. Like DBR, they were originally designed for TYW/ECW and work very well for those epochs, but the others are very well served.

I seem to recall that Stuart has his own rules, have you asked to look at them? The problem with LR/PL is that they are designed to be skirmish games and pike blocks don't "shrink" very well in those circumstances.

The one thing I will say is that the FoG:R rules writers had a real "down" on English armies of this era, rating Early Henrician, Late Henrician, Early Elizabethan and Late Elizabethan as all equally crap (which, admittedly, at least two of them were). I had a long struggle with them when the rules were revised considerably from 2017 to try and bring the Early Henrician army onto at least a par with its French opponents (eg it wasn't allowed any infantry firearms, English border horse were under-equipped/armed compared with their Scottish counterparts, and they refused point blank to accept that mounted archers were analogous to dragoons despite Stuart providing me with several accounts of them behaving as such). That said, you won't win anything with a Late Henrician army as it really was a heap of shit.

[Shahbahraz]

Having just had this conversation, I see Helion is punting a set of rules by Phillip Garton called, 'In Deo Veritas' - 17th century in smaller scales.

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-histo ... scales.php

Anyone seen these? I ask because I have a load of 6mm Covenanters and other such types that I wouldn't mind getting on the table at some stage. They're based on 60 x 30 as I thought this would work with Polemos and DBR.

[FreddBloggs]

I do not know if a To the Strongest and King and parliament mash up might cover you, as the 2 sets kinda bypass exactly the spot you are after.

[valleyboy]

I do not know if a To the Strongest and King and parliament mash up might cover you, as the 2 sets kinda bypass exactly the spot you are after.

that's my great hope for rules once I finally get my arse into gear and sort my Italian wars stuff

[levied troop]

I’ve nothing against Italian Wars, very pretty, but quite a few people do them and I figured that a 1544 game would be a new one on the show circuit - not that I’m worried about that anymore but I still like the more obscure campaigns.

[Shahbahraz]

Locally, the Henrician campaigns aren't a popular subject. From my place I can see where the Abbey across the water was burned down (on Christmas Day), the castle that had to be retaken with the help of French forces, and the city itself, bombarded and set on fire by Henry's fleet.

[grizzlymc]

That was in the days when the crown made it abundantly clear that it was not amused.

[Count Belisarius]

I'm currently choosing suitable colours for pineapples... At least they're not blue...